Out of the Bag + My thoughts on Scrapbooking

Guys, the scrapbooking industry is changing.  There have been many discussions in public scrapbooking forums and podcasts that discuss the question, "Is scrapbooking dead/dying?"  Well, since this is my own little piece of territory on the internet, I'm going to take it upon myself to let you know what I think. :)

I started scrapbooking when I was 12 in the 90's.  That was a long time ago.  Well, not that long.  Anyway...scrapbooking saw a huge boom in 2002-2004.  Everyone started scrapbooking.  What I think is happening is the same thing that happens to the gym in February. Everyone who is still committed and who loves it is continuing.  The rest are slowly dropping off.  And as a result, the industry is leveling off.  I don't think that scrapbooking is dying.  It's just changing.

If you haven't heard already, Archiver's, a brick and mortar scrapbooking chain, is going out of business. Sad day.  I have to admit that I do about half of my scrapbook shopping online so I guess I wasn't a very good customer either.  (I think that the whole internet thing has a big part of the change in the industry as well, but that's a whole other discussion.)  As a result of the store closing, huge sales are going on so I decided to go and see what I could find.  I didn't *need* anything of course, but I came away with a few goodies and decided to give myself a challenge to make a layout with only the supplies I bought that night.

From left to right: Alpha Stickers from Lily Bee Designs, Simple Stories Daily Grind Fundamentals Stickers, Simple Stories Daily Grind Expressions Stickers, Tag Paper from Crate Paper (can't remember which line!), Woodgrain by Kaiser Craft, Jamestown Vellum Paper from the Studio Calico Atlantic Collection,  Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher Refills, Little B skinny Gold striped washi tape, Fiskars Notebook Edge Punch.

I happened to be going straight to my Mom's afterward, so I had to work with what we had.

This is my Mom's box of random craft stuff.  I am just glad she had scissors and a glue stick.  I lucked out that she had string and thread.  She is NOT a crafty person. :)

I happened to have a bunch of small photos in my wallet to choose from.  Score!

I also had a cute post-it note pad and a red striped napkin holder from TGI Fridays maybe?  I dunno.

I won't lie.  These supplies were very tricky.  I usually use several pieces of paper (I like layering) and I like for things to have some dimension and texture.  But, I did it, and I don't hate the results!  Let me show you how I used everything...

I had actually planned on using the aqua woodgrain, but the brown just worked out better with the rest of my supplies!

I had no shortage of letter stickers, so that worked great for my title.  I used the back of the tag patterned paper, which had a nice light grey pattern, to mat my photo and used my notebook punch on the sides.  You can also see a bit of that thin washi tape underlining my title. :)

I layered my photos on the notebook post-it notes and then put those on top of two tags.  I used a bit of string from my mom's basket to tie them and secured the ends with staples.  It was quite arduous, as I had to poke the staples through the paper by hand and fold back the edges...but it was worth it!

I used a sticker for my journaling and layered it with some of the vellum and another post-it.  Malia happened to buy a red American Crafts Slickwriter at the Archiver's sale, so I used that for writing.  I was so glad for the staples and the thread because it lent a different texture to the page, and it needed it!

Here's a closer view of the tags and you can see where I layered in the stripey red napkin holder thingy. I put the vellum behind the photo cluster and see that aqua woodgrain?

I gutted the base page so I could get more use out of the paper!

Working with this small set of supplies, straight out of the bag, really opened my eyes.  I have A TON of stuff.  A TON.  I am creative enough to put it all to work.  Usually when I scrapbook, I like to have all of my stuff at my finger tips.  I feel the need to leaf through everything I have for the perfect papers, embellishments, and finishing touches.  It takes a lot of time.  I made this page in an hour.  That is super fast in my book, and I had fun doing it!

This industry might be changing, but for me, a die-hard, I will always enjoy cutting and gluing.  And as long as there are people like me out there, which I think there are (*fingers crossed*), scrapbooking will stay alive.